David Ayer Wishes He’d Made Joker the Big Bad in ‘Suicide Squad’
It’s been six months since Suicide Squad was released in theaters and a collective history is starting to shape up around the film. Despite denials from Warner Bros., it’s now pretty much understood that the studio rushed production of Suicide Squad and backed director David Ayer into a corner about the film’s final cut. Despite these issues, Ayer has remained a loyal solider for the studio, regularly commenting that the film we saw in theaters was his and his alone.
Still, even the most loyal soldier isn’t immune to periods of doubt. On Saturday, Ayer took to Twitter (via iO9) to share some of his thoughts on the Suicide Squad backlash and what changes he would make to the film if he could start again:
The comment that most people will latch onto here is that Ayer wishes he could have made Joker the film’s Big Bad. This certainly would have fixed some of the plotting issues between Jared Leto’s Joker and Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn. Suicide Squad as a whole is fascinated by the relationship between these two characters, and if they had been more obviously situated on opposite side of the aisle — if Harley Quinn and company were tasked with tracking down the Joker, not some ancient witch god thing — this would have given the flashbacks more weight. Quinn would have been conflicted in her mission, not just being bugged by a high-maintenance side piece.
It’s also worth highlighting Ayer’s final comment about there not being a secret Joker cut of the film anywhere. This seems to align with everything else we know about the film. In short, Suicide Squad was a half-baked idea pulled out of the oven too quickly — or is that the same thing twice? — and no amount of wishing on behalf of fans or Ayer can will a different version of the film into existence. David Ayer is still one of the odder action auteurs working today, and there’s still hope that he can deliver a funky sequel to Suicide Squad somewhere down the line. Let’s see if Warner Bros. gives him a real chance at a superhero movie next time.